Mr. Speaker, it is clear to me that the party is struggling in that regard. The point is that Reform Party members talk about accountability and telling Canadian people the truth and putting forward issues of concern.
I want to stress this point. We are talking about an entire project of $1 billion. The audit was done on 459 individual projects within the $1 billion program representing a total of $200 million. One-fifth of the HRD job creation program was audited. Out of that one-fifth, 37 files were identified as having problems. Those problems ranged from as small as not putting all the paperwork in the right order to as serious as not having the proper documentation at all. This is not acceptable to the government and it is certainly not acceptable to the minister.
The minister came forward and indicated that an audit had been done and she provided us with the results. She gave us the six point plan that will be put in place to deal with the mistakes. I do not think any Canadian would expect an organization the size of HRD or indeed the entire government to be without its share of problems. But to suggest that because an auditor requested to come in by the Government of Canada has identified some problems in the files and that a cabinet minister needs to step aside over that is political hysteria.
Members know full well that they are churning the pot and feeding the hysteria through the media. The only thing that would make their day a success would be to force a cabinet minister as dedicated and as hardworking as this one to resign from the job because of some trumped up nonsense.
That is not to say the government does not recognize there are problems. The government asked for the audit in the first place. I do not know how many times we have to say that. The minister released it. The opposition would take credit for that saying “She heard we were going to ask for it”. Excuse me, I am under the impression it was on the Internet. We do not get much more public than that. The minister came out with it and said “Here is the result of the audit. Here are the problems we have identified and here is the action plan that we will put in place to fix it”.
What really bothers me about all of the hysteria by the members opposite and frankly by the media is that the real victims in all of this will be the community groups in British Columbia, in Newfoundland or in Ontario. They will be young people who need summer jobs. That is what this is about.
I say to hon. members to put themselves in the position of a bureaucrat sitting down somewhere in Halifax, Mississauga or Vancouver with an application before them while all of this is going on in the media. Might one not just be a little nervous?
The Reform Party is the party that demands less red tape. In fact we will potentially see more red tape and more concern.
We want to have rules in place that the bureaucrats must follow. There must be financial accountability. The minister has said that she has put forward the plan that will do that, but we will drive wedges between the offices of HRDC.
I would ask any of these members, some of them I am sure have but I know many of them have not, to go to the HRDC office and look at who is there. There are single moms looking to get retraining in computers. There are 45 to 55 year old men who have been displaced in their jobs and are looking to find a new career, a new alternative. They need our help and why should we not help them? If we can help them with a grant that creates a job, then they have a job and they will pay taxes and they will become productive, proud members of society.
The risk here in all seriousness is that we will damage the relationship our dedicated HRDC offices have. I have one in my community on Glen Erin Drive that services Peel and Halton. We will risk the relationship those offices have with the community.
There is an organization in Mississauga called the Centre for Education and Training. It does tremendous work. It would access funds through the HRDC office to provide training, retraining and motivation. It provides job skills and job search skills. It helps people develop resumes. It helps people get back on their feet.
The problem we face is that we tend to be in such a strong economic climate. Unemployment is at the lowest rate it has been since the 1970s for all levels. Whether it is for women, for youth, or for the entire sector of society, the unemployment rate is at its lowest for all levels. Interest rates are low. Inflation is virtually non-existent. The economy is humming. The books are balanced. We are in a surplus and are awaiting a budget at the end of February that I believe will deliver tax cuts to Canadians. Yet people are sitting around saying that there has to be something wrong here, it cannot be all that good and they will not sit back and accept all this prosperity. We have too many problems.
People say we do not do anything for the homeless. Our minister went to Toronto and announced $743 million in partnership with the municipalities, provinces and the private sector. They should be able to leverage that $743 million into a couple of billion to create housing and help people get off the streets. Is it enough? I guess not. Maybe we would like to do more. I am sure many of us would. The government is trying to respond.
What we see is a feeding frenzy of mass hysteria that is absolutely unfair to the Canadian people, who, because they have read the headlines, think that somehow we have lost a billion dollars. We have not lost one cent. They know that. What has been potentially lost is the faith and the confidence that the community groups have in working with HRD.
Meet the men and women who deal in this business. Meet the Ray Fernbacks of this world, a dedicated civil servant who wants to help young people, people who are without jobs and people who are without hope. There are people like him all across this country. Simply because of the hysteria and the nonsense we are in danger of losing people like him and losing the relationship.
Opposition members know full well that many of the job fund programs have gone into their ridings. The hypocrisy of being in the House and listening as they wax on is terrible. Let us read what they have actually said.
The member for Dauphin—Swan River said: “I am writing to express my support for the TJF application made by the Rolling River First Nation”. The member for Selkirk—Interlake said: “I strongly recommend that the TJF provide funding for this excellent creation program”. The member for Vancouver Island North said: “This is a great opportunity for creating new jobs and new wealth in the Comox Valley”. The member for Battlefords—Lloydminister said in a letter to the minister: “I would like to ask that you seriously consider the request for funding and give the Voice of the Blue Rose Advocacy a favourable response”. The member for Nanaimo—Cowichan, regarding an organization called “Loaves and Fishes”, said: “I would like to request that any and all avenues of financial resources be considered in assisting this important work to continue. I fully support the TJF application put forth by Tough Duck”. It is interesting that these are all Reformers.
What this is really about is that the Reform Party wants to kill this program. The Reform Party thinks it is more important to give tax cuts to the rich than it is to help those small community organizations. It will not be tough duck; it will be tough luck. That is what will happen if the Reform Party has its way and runs its scalpel through the human resources development ministry. It will slash, burn and destroy programs.
Some of these names might seem funny, but these are community organizations that are working in the community. The money goes to hire people to help them deliver the programs. We should not laugh. Reform Party members, of all people, should not laugh at funny names. Goodness knows, they have so many up their sleeves that we never know what they are going to come out with. That is the real agenda.
The member for West Vancouver—Sunshine Coast, one of the few in the Reform Party whom I respect, said: “I believe that it is a worthy, viable and visionary undertaking which warrants your consideration and ultimately your approval of the applications”. Another quality member in this place, the member for Esquimalt—Juan de Fuca, said: “I hope that the money will be forthcoming from the transitional jobs fund to bolster the economy of Port Renfrew. My hope also is that other projects will be considered in the future that will provide for job training opportunities that are sustainable over the long term”.
There are some real mixed messages.
Thirty-seven projects have been identified. Interestingly enough, out of those 37, which represent $30 million—not $200 million, not $1 billion, but $30 million—which is still a lot of money—three of those projects have already been investigated. The files have been put in order and no further action is required by the ministry staff. Those three projects represent almost $12 million of the $30 million, which is almost half. Certainly over one-third of the entire area which was identified has already been dealt with, cleaned up and put to bed. The recommendation is that no further action need take place.
The rest of the investigations are ongoing. We can rest assured that in every HRDC office in the country people probably spent a fairly busy weekend going through the files, and so it should be. Because we refuse to buckle to the nonsensical demands of the opposition does not mean that the government, the minister and the prime minister do not take this seriously. This is serious stuff. When the auditor says “We have identified problems”, any government had better react.
In fairness, why not allow for a reasonable length of time for the government to do the work to clean up the mess? If there are not changes put in place, then perhaps the opposition's demands would make sense. If the government does not correct the problems that are there, whether they are systemic or they happen once, it has to investigate these things because Canadians expect no less than that kind of accountability, openness and transparency, that kind of serious effort by their government. Frankly, that is what is going to happen.
It is not just the Reformers. I will share with the House what the Conservative member for New Brunswick Southwest said: “It would not be fair to suggest that party affiliations play a role in the awarding of money”. I agree. They got over half the projects. He went on to say: “The resulting employment during construction and the permanent jobs to be created from the project will greatly benefit the people and the economy of the St. Stephen area”.
We all know the importance and the significance of this job creation fund. We know what it means to our youth, to our women, to our aboriginals, to our people who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. We know the importance of the partnerships and the relationships that occur right across the land, and we have the serious potential of doing damage to programs that are fundamentally important to all Canadians.
I will reject this motion, as will my colleagues. It is unworthy of the opposition.